Manuel Riener

Manuel Riener (Austria)

riener @ mpia.de

Physical processes controlling star formation in the molecular clouds of the Galaxy

The PhD topic is part of a project based on the novel dust extinction survey PROMISE, whose main science goal it is to build a detailed, Galaxy-scale view of the internal structure of molecular clouds and to confront the turbulence-regulated interstellar medium/star formation paradigm at scales relevant for entire galaxies.

The first part of the PhD project will focus on the large-scale dynamics of PROMISE-detected clouds, in particular whether and how the density structure of the molecular clouds depend on their total kinetic energy. This will be followed by a comparison of the observational data with current MHD simulations to establish whether the simulations correctly predict the observed structural characteristics of the clouds. The final part of the PhD will deal with follow-up observations or spin-off projects based on PROMISE data, such as studying the fragmentation of massive filaments as seen by ALMA, case studies of objects of interest, and the development of fragmentation analysis algorithms.